Hurt

"Hurt" (sometimes typeset as "HURT") is an alternative metal band formed in 2000 in Virginia, and is now located in Los Angeles, California, United States. Currently unsigned, the band has put out two major label albums. The group consists of lead singer J. Loren Wince, guitarist Paul Spatola, and drummer Evan Johns. Bassist Josh Ansley left the band in April 2008 for personal reasons, and was replaced by Rek Mohr (former bassist for the band Leo) in May 2008.

The band first released the independent albums "Hurt" in 2000 and "The Consumation" in 2003. Many of the songs from these albums found their way onto their first two major label releases, and "The Consumation" was re-mastered as "The Re-Consumation" in 2008. The band received critical (though not commercial) success with their major label debut album, "Vol. 1", released on March 21, 2006. However, their singles "Rapture" and "Falls Apart" did gain minor radio airplay on rock stations in the United States. Their second album was the critically-acclaimed "Vol. II", released on September 25, 2007, and they gained their largest radio rock hit yet with "Ten Ton Brick."

==History==

===J. Loren===Lead singer J. Loren Wince was born in Baltimore, Maryland on August 25, 1981. Soon moving to Virginia, he lived in the remote regions of Halifax, Virginia and later relocated to Culpeper, enrolling at Germanna Community College at the age of 14. His parents exposed him to gospel and classical music, and rock and roll was banned from the household. Wince studied to be a classical violinist and began playing at an early age. Wince cites Antonio Vivaldi as his idol and greatest influence, but also cites Schubert, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Bach, Verdi, Handel, both Joseph and Michael Haydn, Grieg, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, Ravel and others as influences in his music. Rock music was "the only feasible method of getting honest compositions to the public without being an "A" list writer" according to J.

His first composition was a march written for brass and strings inspired by the poem "Charge Of the Light Brigade," which he wrote when he was 10. He then wrote the song "Cold Inside" at the age of 13. His first large public show was at 12 as a violinist accompanying a contemporary band.

===Evan Johns===Evan Johns, the drummer of HURT, is the son of acclaimed rock producer Andy Johns, who is most notable for his associations with Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, and Van Halen. Evan Johns was raised in the Los Angeles area and began playing drums at an early age. Alongside his famous father, Evan is also the nephew of music producer Glyn Johns (The Beatles, The Who, Led Zeppelin et al.) and cousin of music producer Ethan Johns (Glyn's son) (Ryan Adams, Kings of Leon et al.)

===Paul Spatola===Paul Spatola, the guitarist for HURT, was born in Brooklyn, NY, and moved to Old Bridge, New Jersey. He has been playing piano since he was 5 years old. He played in a band in high school called Social Butterfly with former HURT bassist Josh Ansley.

===Rek Mohr===Rek Mohr, bassist for the band HURT, grew up in St. Louis, MO. Rek cites Colin Greenwood (Radiohead), John Paul Jones (Led Zepplin), and Adam Clayton (U2) as his musical inspirations. To him, these guys knew when to play and when not to play. He started playing bass at age 16, and was his first and only choice of instruments, saying that playing the bass is a different way of thinking than playing the guitar, which was a major draw for him.

Rek has been part of two bands prior to joining HURT; Semidivine for 3 years, and Leo for 4 years. He left the first two bands because he didn't feel everyone was as dedicated to the music and performing as he was, saying that "When you're putting everything on the line, you want the other guys to do so, as well. I've always been very, very driven. And when I feel something is holding me back, I don't have a problem letting it go."

During the time that Leo toured with HURT, he decided to step down as Leo's Bassist. Josh announced his decision to leave Hurt to persue his acting career. After the tour, Rek booked a one way ticket to L.A. to audition for the band. Rek states the fact that HURT's music has such depth, and that guys were genuine as being his main motivation for wanting to join the band. In May of 2008, HURT announced that Rek Mohr would be replacing previous bassist Josh Ansley and was confirmed that he would be joining HURT as the permanent bassist. Mohr's first performance with the band was held on May 2, 2008 in Johnson City, Tennessee.

===Important Band Details===The band was originally comprised of J. Loren, age 15, and Wil Quaintance. They sought players for years until picking up Steven Fletcher to play the bass. The band was named upon conception of the "Self-Titled" cd when J. Loren was approximately 17. There have been 9 bassists, 5 of which were permanent members. There have been 2 lead guitarists and 2 drummers including the current Evan Johns.

On April 3, 2008, Hurt bassist Joshua Ansley announced via the band's forums & Myspace that he would be leaving the band to pursue his dreams in the field of Acting/Writing/Directing.

On May 12, 2008, Capitol Records informed the band that they would be dropping Hurt from their label. Although no official reason was given, Wince suspects that it was for "purely financial" reasons. Touring had continued as planned.

==Musical Characteristics==Brett Hickman of Static Multimedia states that “There's a feeling that anything can happen in Hurt's music, that this is a band intent on turning people's expectations on their collective ear and making them do what they command. J. Loren and company are making strides towards something truly special in the future. The mere fact that they elevate the rather tired and cliched hard rock genre as much as they do here would indicate that great things are in store for the band as well as for their fans.”

==="Vol. I"===Using deep, thought provoking, and sometimes emotional writing techniques, 'Vol. I' encourages the audience to examine things that many people don't often dare think about. This can be found in songs such as "Falls Apart", "Forever", "Unkind" and "Dirty", which make use of such memorable and profound lyrics. Due to the dynamic song structures, Hurt’s music can take a few listens to grow on you. The majority of the tracks on this album start slow, then build up to a blast of vocal harmonies, acoustics and impressive use of the piano/violin. "Danse Russe" is probably the most upbeat with its gorgeous opening vocals and acoustics. The songs "Shallow", "Unkind", and "Cold Inside" tend to follow the radio rock style of the band Live with a lower tempo and more atmospheric sound with lots of strings in the background. On the other hand, the lead single "Rapture" and "Forever" have much heavier riffing and more gruff vocals in places, although they still have a tight sound and slick production.

==="Vol. II"===‘Vol. II’ saw the band becoming more comfortable with one another. Hurt's songwriting skills and musicianship coupled with improved production values elevates this album to a higher plane than earlier efforts. Summers Lost uses a progressive acoustic guitar riff to open then song that leads into an epic 6-minute track with a crazy and chaotic twist in vocals and musical arrangement at the four minute mark. Ten Ton Brick blends the heavy guitars with more standard “modern rock” structure, but progresses right back into the ambient, melodic sound that encompasses their music as a whole. Aftermath brings you back down with an acoustic riff that adds to Ten Ton Brick. Alone with the Sea features layered harmonies, gorgeous symphonic sweep that uses interesting arrangements from the banjo and other string instruments to present a unique and somewhat eerie sound. Talking to God, which is a very hard-hitting track lyrically, uses a guitar solo and a choir to bring out a dynamic sound. Loded uses the organic, raw talent of the band as opposed to heavily filtered sounds. The drums are tight and quick, and there are guitar riffs all over the place. Better opens with quiet vocals and a guitar riff, but builds up quickly into a track that puts forward a sound of desperation and sadness. Thank You For Listening closes out the album using elements of heavy guitar work and overall buildup of momentum.

==The First Albums=====Self-Titled===

This album was written and performed by J. Loren and Wil Quiantance on drums, with programming credits given to Brian Winshell on the entire album, except "Confession" by Jonathan Minis. It was made in 2000 and approximately 1,200 copies of it were issued to the public. While not much is known about this album, the "recorded" version of the song "Yearn" has been played live. However due to lack of familiarity with the song, it has not been "performed" live to the public. The songs Unkind, U-Bleed, Better, Summers Lost and Abuse of SID have appeared on other albums. At this time, there are no details as to whether any of the other tracks will be released in the future. There are also no intentions of re-releasing this album, such as what was done with "The Consumation/Re-Consumation." As J. Loren states, "It was poorly done and actually diminishes from the intentions behind the songs."

==="The Consumation"===

"The Consumation" album was written and performed by J. Loren Wince, with Wil Quaintance on drums, Shawn Sawyer on bass and given credits on the song "Unclean," with Brian Winshell on Engineering for "House of Cards" and "Velvet Rolls Royce." This album was released in 2003 in J. Loren's home state of Virginia, with approximately 2000 sold, and around 3000 promos and full albums distributed for free. There is a noted mistake on the back of the original album sleeve, where it is missing the song "Cold Inside." This was not intentional. Due to a lack of sleep over the course of a 6-month period, the track listing was the last thing to be done on the album and was simply overlooked.

Later, someone who was trying to help promote the band asked if he could print additional copies of "The Consumation" for sale in his stores. J. Loren agreed to this. The second edition printing differed from the original version with a simplified color scheme and amateur mastering done at the duplication plants studio. It was not a concern to the band that he was making money off their album, considering he took a risk himself on printing albums for their up and coming band, until later when these copies started turning up on eBay. The band found out that their fans were bidding an average of $170 for each copy as they were auctioned off one at a time.

A passage of poetry was removed from a song which was then entitled "Way It Was." The song was renamed "Somnambulist" by Wil Quaintance until the album could be finished and the poem, entitled "The Consumation Premise," could be appropriately re-inserted. The song was changed back to "Way It Was.".

==Discovery==The band (with the original line-up) was discovered by Tom Lewis, an ex-Universal Records A&R who quit his position to manage the band somewhere around 2005. The show was at a The Continental in New York, where a friend of Tom's, Jay Silverman, passed the band's CD on to him..

After the initial contact with lead singer J. Loren, it was another 8 months until they heard from Tom again. They met up with Tom and his company (Metropolitan Hybrid) and the journey began.

The band went to record its demo to help find a record label. After undisclosed issues with the current drummer for the band, session drummer Evan Johns asked if he could be a part of the recording, which J. agreed to.

In the process of trying to shop around for a major label, the bass player at the time decided it would be best if he quit the band, at which time they began to seek out his replacement, former Streetlight Manifesto bassist Josh Ansley.

When asked about how he became part of the band, Paul Spatola has been quoted as saying that he received a phone call from Josh Ansley, saying he should fly to New York and try out for the band, as they where looking for guitarists. Paul states, "A month later I didn’t hear anything and I said 'I just gotta fly out there.'" His first performance with the band was at a night club called 'The Mint,' at which time, Paul intended on being with the band for a few days but ended up staying for two weeks. The first day he tried out for the band, and with a little help from Tom Lewis, J. Loren was convinced to bring Paul into the band as the guitarist.

The next day, the band played a showcase in New York, at which time they had spoken with several record companies including Columbia, Interscope, Island, Universal, Virgin and Atlantic, but nothing came of these conversations.

Initially, Capitol Records had purchased the album, Vol. 1, from the band at cost which was approximately 100k. No other apparent changes other than signing the recordings rights to them took place.

==Major Label Albums====="Vol. 1" and "Vol. II"===Both Vol. 1 and Vol. II were recorded together, and the plan initially was to have them come out immediately, but at the time they had just been signed to Capitol and that was too much of an investment for a major label to put out a dual-CD and the touring to support it. Instead, they took the time to re-record Vol. II and improved upon it.

Vol. 1 was released on March 21, 2006, and can be found on Capitol Records. The album was Produced by Eric Greedy, with Executive Producer Janelle Lewis. Lyrics by J. Loren Wince. Musical performances by J. Loren Wince (vocals, guitar, violin), Evan Johns (drums, piano), Josh Ansley (bass, backing vocals) and Paul Spatola (guitar, backing vocals). This album has produced three singles including "Rapture," "Falls Apart" and "Danse Russe."

Vol. II was released on September 25, 2007, and can be found on Capitol Records. The album was Produced by Eric Greedy with J. Loren Wince (vocals, guitar, violin, banjo), Evan Johns (drums), Josh Ansley (bass) and Paul Spatola (guitar, dobro, piano). The album has seen two singles, "Ten Ton Brick" and "Loded," a popular selection from a poll taken on the band's forums.

==="The Re-Consumation"===

The Re-Consumation album was released on February 19, 2008, as a means to complete the foretold story contained within "The Consumation" ...and also to save fans a bunch of money. This album was edited by J. Loren Wince, adding three files as a new recordings, while the other two edits had been recorded at the time of conception and intentionally withheld for the specific purpose of its re-release. The song "Somnambulist" was renamed to "Way it Was" simply because it was always to be named that since it was written. States J. Loren, "The song is a vignette into a moment from the past which could not be completed in the present. This is why Mr. Quaintance chose its temporary name for me. This is the only song in my repertoire which I did not name."